This week I got the chance to experience what its like to be a teacher in the preschool environment.  A few members including myself of the sophomore music education class are in brass band and were on tour during one of the keister music night experience assignments, (field studies).  To make up this assignment we had to create and schedule our own day of music with a preschool.  We all decided to separate into three groups and run three different music experiences for the kids based on their current curriculum.  For my station I decided to run a drum circle.  I prepared different lesson plans to include basic counting, rhythm, and solo vs accompaniment exercises.  I went in the classroom only to be greeted with failure to follow through my carefully planned lesson.  The children didn't want to follow the specific instructions so I had to adapt and change my plans.  I quickly realized that the drum was a barrier to rhythm.  I remembered the previous week that the children had sang songs while slapping their lip and clapping.  To revise the solo section of my lesson plan I had everyone in the group slap their lap and clap their hands while one child played on their drum.  This initiated a huge turn around and positive path for the drum circle.  Eventually we worked with playing soft and loud.  Some of the exercises I had the children do to teach them dynamics were getting as close to the floor as possible and then jumping up and creaming.  I had them do this exercise about three time and then transferred it to the drum.  Instead of screaming they were asked to play loudly on the drum.  Then we proceeded to work on speed.  After working with speed we routed all of the drums (7 drums) and practiced shapes of the drums (circle and triangle).  I did however still run into some challenges.  I had two "rules".  My two rules were that when I put my hands up everyone put their hands up and stopped talking.  The second rule was that when it was time to play the drum we put our hand on top of the drum head.  Some of the issues I ran into were children not wanting to participate, children throwing drums, and kids refusing to listen to instructions.  Some of the things I had to do to counter the behavior issues were to have the children put their drums on the floor, change topics and areas of focus quickly and repeatedly, and when it came down to it, the main teacher in the classroom had to remove two students who had behavior issues.  Overall I feel like my drum circle was a huge success.  My favorite moment was meeting a girl named Adriana.  The first thing a did with every group was go around and ask names.  Adriana softly spoke her name and another kid shouted out "down worry, she's just really shy".  When it came time to solo Adriana asked to solo and she played as loud and as fast as she could.  It reminded me of how music can be a channel that people feel comfortable expressing theirselves through when other channels are not as friendly.  

​This past Wednesday I attended a night of fun displays of research and innovations in music technology.  Some of the most phenomenal displays of research that inspired me included information on dyslexia in music and the differences and difficulties in music in rural areas.  These topics interested me because they are areas that are not explored or talked about enough in our profession.  Some of the interesting ideas that were expressed to help students with dyslexia were changing the color of paper music is printed on, recording yourself, emphasizing listening before playing to help analyze what the music is supposed to sound like.  I personally have used all of the methods to help me memorize and read music better.

On the rural poster some things that were talked about were issues not prevalent in more urban areas.  Some of these topics included a lack of enrollment, lack of funding, and adaptation to isolation (lack of diversity).  In rural areas funding is an extreme issues.  Some people can't afford instruments and the schools systems don't get a lot of funding to buy instruments.   This decreases enrollment and interest in music.  The adaptation to isolation includes including middle school programs in marching bands, joint concerts, and additional community outreach.

I then attended multiple music education technology innovation presentations.  I had a lot of fun playing with the different devices primarily made of makeymakey and other conductive materials such as tinfoil, liquids, and metal objects.  

Lastly I attended a music education debate about the inclusion of music education in public school systems.  I was very intrigued by both sides of the debate but ultimately sided with the inclusion of music education as a core subject required every year in pre-k to 12.  The other side (no inclusion of music education in public schools, music education should be a community learning experience) made good strong points in their argument but were ultimately trumped by the other side.  I created a FB poll online to see how many people who participated in music would or wouldn't have participated in music if it weren't in public schools.  The poll can be found here.
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Students will get to use all different types of drums and instruments.  Students will be taught 2-3 basic beat/rhythms that are easy to replicate.  Students will then implement counting to 5 to practice their counting skills.  In this activity, we will keep a basic beat going and all students will have the opportunity to solo individually.  Next on the agenda is dynamics (how soft and loud) and a unison section.  This “section” of the drum circle will focus on playing loud and soft with one or two rhythms.  We will play one rhythm soft, and one loud and have fun going in-between the two.  This experience is purely to get the children to have fun while focusing on basic counting skills and dynamics.  This activity is also used to let kids express themselves and have fun without any judgement (the solo section).  Drum circles purpose is to bring people together through a language that everyone speaks or can recognize; music.  The last thing I would like to incorporate in my station would be making sure that we clap and appreciate all of the soloists at the end of the circle one by one.  This type of gratitude and appreciation will not only be nice for the students but will make them want to congratulate their peers as well.  
Drum Circle? What’s that?
A drum circle is an activity including a celebration of friends, life itself, community, and music-making in the moment.  Participants sit in a circle while playing drums and hand percussion, and join in creating a group rhythm. The circle is "moderated" by a facilitator who guides the group in rhythms and rhythm-based activities.
What will students gain?
Students will gain basic music skills such as rhythm, dynamics, balance, and counting skills.  Students will also gain the experience of playing music with peers.  Music teaches many things, some of them being, a way of communication, expression, teamwork, and leadership.  These key concepts are vital to the expansion and growth of a human.